8:08pm | It’s Time For More Than Change

Why are we afraid of God’s presence?  It is true, we are.  Let’s look back at one of the first times he wanted to show Himself to His people in Deuteronomy 5.23-27

“So it was, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders.  And you said ‘ surely the Lord our God has shown us his glory and His greatness, and we had heard His voice from the midst of the fire.  We have seen this day that God speaks with man; yes he still lives.’

‘Now therefore why should we die?  For this great fire will consume us;  if we hear the voice of the Lord anymore then we shall die.  For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of fire, as we have and lived?’

‘You go near and hear all that the Lord our God may say and tell us all that the Lord our God says to you, and we will hear and do.’”

See for them the presence of God was pretty scary, they had the impression that those who spent time with God were next to death.  God as a big bad daddy, was out to get them.  A major factor in this is an orphan spirit.  They didn’t see God for who He is.  Nor did they do what they were told by the people who were making that sacrifice for them.

But lets look at this closely.  They were afraid to die, ok… we are too so what makes that special?  Well, we act the same way, but our death is not so literal nor is it so scary.  They who looked upon the face of God under that covenant were surely going to perish.  Even Moses glowed just by being close to God for that time on the mountain.

For us though, we are lazy and disobedient.  “Why should we die?”  That is thought of the church today, why should we when a “prophet” or other man/woman of God will stand up and tell us what He is saying to us.  Why should we die?  Why should we make the effort to get close to God and hear what he says, we are probably not going to do it anyway right?  It is a lack of respect for the Father, and God Himself called it a Lack of Fear.

Here is why we should be different. The life that comes from our death is amazing!  It is powerful and satisfying and everything that we long for.  All of our passions, and hopes and dreams tied up together in one answer.  The Lord Jesus Christ.  We can truly be as one, and this is the only life that comes after death.  We miss it completely or we enter into this awesome thing and it works itself out in us as we come to the mountain of fire.

Coming to the mountain is that process of killing the flesh.  The Israelites did not want to, nor do the Americans, nor does most of the church.

Ok.. so lets be real. What does this look like?  Let me share my life with you.

God is asking me to trust him.  With my job, my money, my family and everything else.

So what… well he has put me in a place that I am totally not able to do any of this by myself.  I can’t get a house, but I am losing one. I can’t work more for more money because I wont walk away from my call, and I don’t have a completed degree which would allow me to make enough money to work at the church for free.   I have to invest in my family with time and I can’t take that time and put it into other Jobs because then I rob from them my first priority.  With all that stress of this rock and a hard place that I am in,  God keeps telling me that He is good and is in control.  This is like a Holy Ghost setup!

God turned up the heat on me and now the things that are in my life, the trust issues and insecurities that are there, are surfacing and I feel out of control.  However, that is where God wants me, and YOU.  He wants to put to death all the things that are not HIM and replace them with the life that He has.

The price for admission is death.  It is that simple.  The way to get to God the father and hear what he has to say is to be like Jesus.  Through the cross into resurrection.  It took Jesus 33 years to die so don’t expect it tomorrow, but really expect it to happen.